(light music) (upbeat music) - Rachel!

- Hey!

- Welcome to the original Moto.

- Oh my god.

(Lee laughs) I love a pizza smell in the morning.

(Rachel laughs) Are you wearing a little pizza cologne?

I think I got a little bit.

- Oh yes, you know it, I.

- We're not New York, we're not Chicago, but I think Seattle has fantastic pizza.

And some of our best pies are infused with the culture and creativity of the folks making them.

I'm Rachel Belle, host of "Your Last Meal" podcast, cookbook author, and long-time journalist.

Today on "The Nosh", a slice of Seattle.

(upbeat music) (jazzy music) James Beard nominated chef, Mutsuko Soma is one of the only people in the U.S. hand making soba noodles.

And while she rolls and cuts at her restaurant, Kamonegi, she dreams up Japanese toppings for her pizza pop up, Pizzakaya.

So we're gonna experiment and try out a new pizza recipe today.

What are you thinking?

What do we have here, what are you gonna make?

- In my mind, like something big creating miso ramen.

- A miso ramen pizza?

I love this idea.

So we're gonna start making the sauce here.

So we have some ginger.

- I'm gonna crush once.

- Okay.

(blender whirring) - Bit pepper, miso.

- You have to have miso.

Sesame oil.

- Sesame oil, MSG, dashi dashi powder.

Oh, smell that miso ramen already.

- Oh, can I smell it?

- Yes.

- Oh, it actually does really smell like ramen, yeah, it does.

Oh that's really good.

What's our next step?

- I have to cut chashu.

- Do you think that there's a Seattle style of pizza?

- I think Seattle people, they're not like afraid of like trying new things, and the culture's so mixed.

- I think people line up for that, people like something new, and innovative, and exciting, and different.

(light music) So we're gonna use this bottle of sake to roll out the dough.

(Rachel and Mutsuko laugh) Just this normal average sized bottle off sake.

So we're gonna top it now?

- Yep.

- I'm so excited to try this, I'm drooling already.

- Smells so good.

- It does smell good.

Doesn't it look like a open kind of pork bun (Mutsuko laughs) before you close it?

Okay, should we go to the oven?

Oh, your oven is so cute.

- Oh yes?

(Rachel laughs) (light music continues) There she goes.

This one looks so good, look at all those bubbles.

- [Mutsuko] Smells good.

- Yeah, I'm excited to try it.

The miso is, it's there but it's not too salty, it's subtle.

I thought that I would miss having something saucier, but I don't.

So if you were gonna add anything, or change anything, what do you think you would do?

- I think it's, complete.

- It's perfect.

- This is good.

- Yeah, it is really good.

- Yeah, nice job me.

- I know, good job, you.

(Rachel laughs) - Kanpai.

(glasses clinking) - Kanpai.

In West Seattle, Lee Kindell and his partner Nancy opened their first restaurant, Moto, a 2021 pandemic pivot after owning hostels for many years.

So, you use sourdough?

- This is Betty, it's-- - Oh, that's your starter?

- Yes, it's 120 year old sourdough starter.

So you're gonna grab this dough, and you're just gonna poke-- - Okay.

- At it, follow what I do.

- This feels good.

- It's a really nice dough, yeah.

- I wanna do this all day.

- So then, see like this, you're gonna toss it like that, and stretch it out.

- Whoa.

- And then I add this little twist, you're doing great actually.

- [Rachel] From the first day Moto opened, there were lines down the block.

So Lee switched to an online reservation system.

He released slots for the week, but when those pizzas sold out in seconds, he expanded reservations to the month, and then two, and three months out.

But it was nearly impossible to order a pizza.

People thought Lee was manufacturing scarcity to create a buzz.

- It sold out in like seconds, and then-- - They're selling like Def Leppard tickets in 1989.

- It was so crazy.

Everybody thinks like I'm this marketing genius or something, but it was out of just necessity to organize all of these people that like, hundreds and hundreds of people.

- Okay, okay.

- And so, that's how it started.

(upbeat music) - I just wanna kind of establish what your style of pizza is, because when I see this, this to me is Detroit.

- Yes.

- But then the toppings are untraditional.

- I took the high hydration of Roman style pizza, and then, this kinda Midwest, Detroit style, and kinda the grittiness of New York.

And then of course, I'm Filipino, and I just kinda threw 'em all together.

- Smoshed 'em all up.

- Yeah, into this little Frankenstyle pizza, and that's what I call it odd, so.

- And the brick cheese, that is what you have to have for the Detroit style, right?

- You have to have that for the Midwest Detroit.

(upbeat music) We're gonna do what I like to call my love letter to the Pacific Northwest, we're gonna do the crab pizza.

And then we're gonna do my number one seller, which is the mister pig, which comes from my-- - Working out the favorite.

- Filipino heritage.

So you wanna put a little line of onions here, and then a little line of onions there.

- Okay.

- I think I need to.

- Hire me?

- Yeah, bring you on.

- Yeah, yeah, thank you.

- We would have so much fun.

- Here.

We wouldn't get anything done.

- No we wouldn't.

(Lee laughs) - We were like the kids that we would get separated in third grade, ya know?

(light music) You know, saying Seattle style, like what does that mean, you know?

- What does it even mean?

- It's like, it's all about the people who live here, and so you're putting your culture, and your personality, and your passion into this.

So it's like, because you're in Seattle, it's Seattle style pizza.

- Yeah, I was raised in Asia as a child, and so I like bringing some of these flavors that are quite different putting on pizza, like for example, my beef adobo has kimchi on it, my clam pizza has garlic chili oil on it.

- I like that.

And this feels very Pacific Northwest to have a dungeness crab pizza.

- It's so-- Yeah, I've fished-- - For sure.

- These waters my whole life, so I wanted to add the seafood element to our pizzas.

And, so we got a clam chowder pizza, and a shrimp pizza.

- I love that one.

- And I'm working on a octopus pizza right now, so.

- Oh really?

- Yeah, so.

- Nice.

- Yeah, a lotta experimentation goin' on.

- Okay, let's bake them, because, we have to eat them.

- We have to eat 'em, let's do it.

- All right, let's do it.

(Lee laughs) (jazz music) That looks so good.

- And then, you pull it out.

You're gonna tilt it like this, and then.

- Okay.

- Slowly pull it out like that.

Boom!

- Nice, it's so puffy, so fluffy.

- And we're gonna just goop the butter on, and then we sprinkle the crabby on.

- Luxurious.

- So this is squeezed lemon juice.

- Okay.

- And then I use sea beans from the coast line, and then I dehydrate 'em and turn 'em into a salt, and it goes in here with this.

- Yeah, so you pulverize them?

- Yeah, I pulverize them-- - That's so interesting.

- Into so yeah.

- Oh, it tastes like the sea.

- It tastes like the ocean.

(Lee laughs) - Wow, that's very cool.

- So bit of that with a little zest.

So a little dill.

Now we finish it off with thyme, oregano, and blam, the crab pizza.

- That looks, amazing.

- Now your turn.

- [Rachel] Okay.

- So, this one gets three sauces.

- Okay.

- Our tomato sauce that comes from California, our homemade chimichurri which is mango, pineapple, and then this is the banana ketchup actually made with real bananas and vinegar.

That is some gorgeous pizza.

- [Rachel] So gorgeous.

(jazz music) - So I think we should have the crab first because that's the lighter.

- Okay.

- I never get tired of that.

- This is so good.

- That is a good pizza.

(Lee laughs) - I love how the crab's a little cold, and then the pizza's hot, so you get the contrast.

You can really taste all the herbs.

- You know, as the pizza community comes together more and more, and I think as a collective, I think it's really important that we kind of set the example out there to just be kind to each other, you know, instead of all gate keeping, we open ourselves up to sharing information, and knowledge.

Right, I think that's kinda the first steps to kinda like healing ourselves as a collective, and really kinda bringing people together.

And that's why you know our motto, share love, hope, and pizza, we don't just live it, like it's integrated in all things we do business wise.

And, I love that idea, and it's just simply, you know, always be kind.

- Pizza is love.

- [Lee] Pizza is love.

(jazz music) - This is really useful, because I do make pizza at home, and, the dough is the hardest.

- Did you hear that?

- Yeah.

Do you not know what that was?

That was scary if you don't know what that was.

- No, I don't know what that was.

- I don't believe in ghosts.

- Right.

- And I'm very afraid of them at the same time.

- Really?

- That freaked me out.

(jazz music continues) - [Announcer] "The Nosh" was made possible in part with the generous support of Alaska Airlines.